


To Repair a Bond

by Starren_Moonstone



Series: Collections from The Journalist - Whumptober Edition [12]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Drowning, Gen, I think I've broken something, Parent Death, Whumptober 2020, broken trust, sibling fighting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:13:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26970442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starren_Moonstone/pseuds/Starren_Moonstone
Summary: After years of cat and mouse, Diane and Wyatt finally talk out their feelings.
Series: Collections from The Journalist - Whumptober Edition [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947499





	To Repair a Bond

**Author's Note:**

> Whumptober 2020 Day 12: "I Think I've Broken Something" - broken trust

November 28th, 2017

Diane, Taelyn, and Wyatt are all very quiet as the three of them make their way to the hotel room they’ll be sharing for the night, despite Diane not wanting to be near either of them. Wyatt she really wants to beat up until he comes to some sort of sense, and Taelyn… Diane does not know what to make of them yet, and Wyatt seems to trust them a little too much. 

Taelyn takes out the key-card, swipes it in the door, and pops it open. Standard two queen sized bed room, nothing much to write home about. The three of them walk inside, with Taelyn hanging out near the door, as Diane sits on the bed near the window. Wyatt stands awkwardly at the tv.

“Alright, I’m only going to say this once,” Taelyn starts, “You two have to come onto some sort of agreement. I don’t care if it means you two just put up with each other for the night or you become friends again. I just want you two to get to a point where you won’t try to murder each other for ten hours.”

“She’s the one that wants to kill me!” Wyatt says, flabbergasted.

Taelyn stares over at Diane. She knows it was all directed at her. 

“Fine, where do you want to start?” Diane crosses her arms. “The fact that you killed our parents or that you ran away and never took responsibility for what you did?”

“You don’t understand what happened.”

“Then fucking tell me! Because the way I see it, you had a hissy fit over nothing and murdered them out of spite!”

Taelyn sits down on the ground, blocking the door. There is no leaving the room or conversation.

“It wasn’t out of spite,” Wyatt mutters, “I’ve already talked about this.”

“Not with Diane,” Taelyn says, “And she needs to hear it from you, not me.”

If Diane still had her knives, or any of her weapons, she would already be out of the room. However, Taelyn has confiscated them for the time being. Vest pockets, very close to the body. Diane figures she could wait until nightfall to retrieve them, once Taelyn is asleep.

“I didn’t want to kill them,” Wyatt says, “It just happened.”

Diane is not amused. She doesn’t move, not even to blink.

“Do you need help?” Taelyn asks.

Wyatt looks highly uncomfortable, but nods all the same. 

Taelyn stands up, puts their hand on Wyatt’s shoulder, and asks, “What happened the day our parents’ died?”

Something slightly changes in Wyatt. Nothing obvious, just the way his eyes look… they seem to unfocus a little. “I don’t know how much you noticed before that day, but I was having a rough time the whole week. Not because of work or school, but because of Too Close I Can’t Breathe. Not that I knew; I just had an itch that I couldn’t get rid of and breathing was getting harder day by day. I thought I was having a weird allergic reaction to something, but I wasn’t dying so there was no point in saying anything. It wasn’t like I was swelling or anything.”

Taelyn and Diane share a glance. No words between them part, but the meaning is very much evident.

“That day, when I was brushing my teeth in the morning, I noticed the water wasn’t going down the drain and was just puddling in the sink. Like, I turned off the water and waited for ten minutes. It just stayed in the sink. Like something was clogged. I called Dad and let him know. He said the obvious ‘Don’t touch anything, just wait until I get home’ thing. Which was fine… and then it happened in the kitchen, when we were making pasta… and then the toilet.” Wyatt scrunched up his face, like a sudden headache just happened. “And shit kinda got everywhere. At least with that one, I knew how to use a plunger, but it didn’t matter because there was just too much water and it was coming into the house. I didn’t call Dad again. I didn’t want to get him mad. You know how he was when Taelyn disappeared. I think he kinda blamed himself a bit. I could explain when he got home, and maybe he would have a better explanation than just weird shit going on. Like, random flooding, because that happens in some places, and that’s weird shit but not like our weird shit.

“Mom came home first. She and Diane got into a heated argument about colleges. Something about Diane being a rash decision maker for not wanting to go to Simmons without looking at what they have to offer properly.”

“I didn’t want to go to an all women’s college!” Diane stands up, shouting. Taelyn motions for Diane to sit back down. “I only applied there for her sake,” she mutters, crossing her legs as well as her arms.

“Mom went to the bathroom upstairs, and noticed all the water. I explained to her what happened, and she decided to start trying to fix it.” Wyatt smiled sadly. “She was always like that. Trying to fix things. You know, she asked me a few times that week if I was ok. That there was something off about me. Kinda makes me wish I said something earlier.”

Taelyn’s face strains slightly.

“Dad came home maybe twenty minutes later. And joined Mom upstairs to fix the pluming. That’s when the water started leaking from the bathroom and kitchen sink downstairs. It kept coming and coming and I wanted to be in that water. I dunked my head in, but it wasn’t good enough. I felt frustrated and angry and I didn’t understand why. That’s kinda when I started losing control. My feet just kinda started walking, and I ended up upstairs, where our parents were in the bathroom, wondering why the shower was starting to flood. I closed and locked the door, and forced the water to rise quicker. They tried escaping, banging on the door and screaming. But, there was no getting out of the room. The door was locked. The window was locked. And soon the screaming fell silent, and I felt relieved.”

Diane sat there, shaking in rage. “Relieved?”

“Don’t act like you don’t feel the same way after a hunt,” Taelyn says, the weight of their words chilling Diane to the bone.

“The water disappeared after that, and I opened the door…” Wyatt shakes his head, and forces Taelyn’s hand off of him. “You know what was there. Just… I regretted it immediately. Not that I had much of a choice.”

“And so what?” Diane asked, her voice clipped, “You just ran so you wouldn’t take responsibility.”

“It wasn’t my fault.”

“It was you who pulled the trigger. It doesn’t matter why.”

Wyatt looks over at Taelyn for support. His eyes wide in pleading.

Taelyn shakes their head, then turns to Diane, walking over to her. “Wyatt has said his piece. Your turn.” Taelyn puts their hands on her shoulder. “What do you think of all this?”

“If you really think that this would make things better, your wrong.” The words slip out of Diane before she can really think about it. She realizes two things: the first is that Taelyn is also an avatar. It makes sense now, why they have the creepy eye earring now. The second is the source of her anger. Diane holds Taelyn’s hand where it is on her shoulder, nearly clawing down on it. “I trusted you to always be there for me, being my older brother. Especially after our sibling died. I had to bury our parents alone.”

“You still had the rest of the family,” Wyatt says.

“I wanted you, fucker. Because out of everyone else, you would understand everything I was feeling. But no. You just, disappeared. No word, no message. You didn’t even pack. You just ran with your head between your legs like a coward.”

“Would you have stayed?”

“Yes!”

“Except you haven’t.” Taelyn says, managing to grab their hand back. “What of Ravi Noxolo? Reese Dina? Toni Hailey?”

There was something of the collection of names that Diane recognizes vaguely.

“These are your victims, and you skipped town before anyone could find them. You left no note to their families, telling them how to find their loved ones. You didn’t stay to get arrested and tried for your crimes.”

“I didn’t know them personally.”

“And does that matter?”

“What are you getting at?”

“Don’t act so high and mighty when you have done the same thing. Have some humility and reevaluate yourself.” Taelyn heads over to the door. “I’m taking a walk. Don’t strangle each other while I’m gone.” Without waiting for any replies, Taelyn leaves the room. 

Diane closes her eyes, gritting her teeth and balling her hands into fists. Taelyn does have a point, if only because at the end of the day, Diane is an avatar, like Wyatt. She also caused as much tragedy as Wyatt did, if not more. 

“…you don’t have to forgive me,” Wyatt says, sitting down on the edge of the bed, “I certainly don’t. Tae doesn’t either, but they’ve been nice enough to let me stay at their place. I help out, obviously, but like… they didn’t have to do that.”

“I can never trust you again,” Diane says, “Things can’t be like they were before.”

“Yeah… well… maybe that’s for the best? ‘Cause like, we’re both adults, and we both do kinda shitty things… maybe we can start over? Like, just… get to know each other again?”

“Can you promise you won’t hurt me again?”

Wyatt looks down to the ground and frowns. “I don’t think anyone can. I mean… we both loved Mom and Dad… but… Tae hasn’t forgiven them for the stress they put them through.”

Diane gives Wyatt a confused look. “What stress? They’ve always been there with us.”

Wyatt looks at the door. “It’s more their story to tell, I think… but like, I haven’t heard the whole thing either… I don’t want to know. Just… they had a different experience with Mom and Dad than we did.”

Diane nods and follows Wyatt’s gaze to the door. “So… it really is them? Back from the dead?”

“Yeah. Wild, isn’t it?”

Diane grits her teeth. “And they never thought to come home?” She noticed Wyatt’s pained face. “Their story, not yours, right?”

“They, ah, didn’t want to pull the family into all this.” He vaguely gestures to the empty room.

“Too late for that,” Diane says. She laughs a little, surprising not only Wyatt but herself. 

“So… are we, good?”

“No, but I made a promise.” Wyatt’s face fell at this. Diane moved so that she could look in his eyes. “But did you really expect me to be ok in a day?”

Wyatt opened his mouth, then closed it. Diane shakes her head. She doesn’t know if it is a relief or a tragedy that even after all this time, Wyatt is still the same as he was before.

**Author's Note:**

> If you like what you read and want to learn more and keep up with this content, I have a tumblr set up. beholdingwriter.tumblr.com I'll be posting up the stories on there, as well as answering questions about the characters involved in this collection of stories.


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